The schedule is here! Yikes!

Missouri fans, you finally have a schedule to analyze. And analyze away, because hoooooo boy, is it a doozy.

That sure is a baptism by fire in the SEC for Eli Drinkwitz. Of the first seven games, the Tigers have perhaps the most dominant program in the country, an old powerhouse seemingly on the rise, the reigning National Champions, Vanderbilt, the always-good-sometimes-great Florida, a team they haven’t beaten in what seems like forever and the perennial SEC East favorites. Overall, the Tigers probably drew three of the toughest match ups from the SEC West, two of them coming right away.

And really that’s the main point of record — that opening three-game stretch, including an opening week match up with Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide. College Football News had some immediate thoughts about Missouri’s date with the Tide in Week 1:

Will the Tiger offense go anywhere? The running game should be fine overall, but this feels like an early statement moment for a Tide D that wasn’t exactly its normal self last year.

This is especially of concern considering the Tigers currently don’t have a QB they trust enough to announce as the starter. At least it’s at home, though! Plenty of opportunity to get that opening day crowd going wi — wait, what’s that? There probably won’t be an opening day crowd? Ah, well! Nevertheless.

Sound off below with your thoughts on the schedule. Personally, I’m thinking 4-6 seems like a pretty good season with this schedule, with 6-4 being the ceiling.

Yesterday at Rock M

• 2020 Missouri Football Position Previews: Quarterbacks
• 20 for 20: #18 - Mizzou escapes in The Battle of Columbia
• MIZ-ZOOM: Fall Practice #1
• Mizzou Football gets their fall schedule

More Links:

• A photo slideshow of Mizzou’s first practice from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch highlights the difficulties of masks and football. Meanwhile, Dave Matter wrote about Eli Drinkwitz’s ‘long-term’ perspective after the first day of practice.
• Souichi Terada looked at Drinkwitz’s offense, which is still breaking through the Missouri roster after an offseason and one practice’s worth of work. Earlier in the day, he also posted a camp primer for anyone looking to catch up on the big storylines of the next few weeks.
• However, no storyline is going to hang heavier over Missouri’s camp than the one hanging over the whole of humanity, writes Eric Blum at The Columbia Tribune.
• Saturday Down South looked at all the QB competitions in the SEC and predicted a winner for them all, including Missouri.
• Rivals listed out its 14 5-star recruits for the 2022 class, and wouldn’t you know it — a St. Louis kid (whom Missouri is already recruiting) made the Top 10.
• One of the biggest remaining targets on Mizzou Hoops’ recruiting board announced a Top 7 school choices on Monday morning... and the Tigers have made the cut.

• 2021 basketball recruit Logan Landers, a major target for the Tigers in this coming class, announced he is reclassifying back one year because of concerns about college sports and COVID-19.
• The NBA playoffs opened on Monday afternoon with a match up between two teams with Mizzou alumni — the Denver Nuggets (MPJ) and the Utah Jazz (Jordan Clarkson.) Clarkson provided the Jazz with 18 points in 39 minutes, and while Porter posted a more modest 13 points. He contributed 8 rebounds and shot 42.7 percent from three as the Nuggets took Game One 135-125.
• Over at PowerMizzou, (almost) everything is available for all readers to partake in, including updated information for fans wishing to attend 2020 games, an overview of the 2020 schedule, a short camp notebook and playback of Drinkwitz’s comments after practice finished up.
• The grand “in-person classes” experiment is going swimmingly here in North Carolina, where UNC is moving to remote learning after one week and five clusters of COVID-19.
• With a number of schools already out for the non-conference portion of the season, the NCAA announced it will have more information regarding the 2020-2021 hoops season by mid-September.
• If you’re looking to sign up for ESPN+, Rock M Nation now has an affiliate link: click Here for ESPN+ Now! (** RockMNation has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though RockMNation may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links.**)